Separate wings and drumettes and set wings aside. For the drumettes, using a knife, cut around the thin tip of each piece to loosen the meat around the joint. While holding the base, push the meat down gently to expose the bone and form a “chicken lollipop.” See instructional video below for a short tutorial.

Make marinade

Mince shallots and garlic and place in a bowl large enough to fit 30 pieces of chicken. Pour fish sauce, salt, sugar, and pepper into the bowl as well, then add the chicken. Make sure the chicken is well coated in the mixture, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit overnight to marinade.

Coating and frying

Heat vegetable oil in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Coat chicken first in flour and then in the bread crumbs; it may be necessary to push the meat up on the drummettes once more. Once oil is ready, fry chicken until golden, drain, and serve.

13 Responses to “Mom’s Lollipop Fried Chicken”

lol Cathy your mom just made that look so easy and I love her attitude at the end, she finishes the deed and throws it right in the basket. I will bookmark this recipe and make it tomorrow. Thanks for sharing

Thank you for sharing! This is the BEST fried chicken I have ever made. I had trouble finding the fish sauce the first time I tried it, so I just used a traditional southern buttermilk marinade. It was good. But your marinade really blew me away the second time I made this.

Your Mom’s video gave me the courage to try a new technique. Please thank her for me as well. My grandaughter loves “chicken on the bone”. This has quickly become one of her favorites.

If I had just one tip to give it would be to coat the chicken in flour, set aside and let it get “sticky” again before coating in the panko. The panko sticks much better this way.

do you think you could get a recipe for the chicken at the 1.99 restaurant? my mom and i have been working for many months on recreating this recipe and we’ve got the sauce and rice for the most part but we think you could help us with the chicken. any ideas? and also, if you have any other ideas for the sauce and rice, they’d be a big help.

Each year I put on a wild game beast feast here in Indiana, using wild or ranched wild game. We have had sweet/sour alligator, muskrat velvet soup, elk roast, coconut panko coated salmon with Thai sauce, deer stew, moose roast, kangaroo filet mingnon, kangaroo pouches(basically English sausage rolls with kangaroo), halibut chunks, salmon. You name it. Caribou, road kill squirrel. I read your blog after going to the donut vault in Chicago and saw Mom’s lollipops. I want to do the same using the drumstick of a chukkar, a wild game bird about the size of a cornish hen. I would french the drumstick and grill it after a curry marinade. For a dipping sauce I would use a tamarind sauce I either made or bought. Do the curry and tamarind sauce go together? I would appreciate any suggestions you have on them. I am changing up the menu every year, and when I saw your lollipops I just had to do them

Doug - Lollipop chukkar? I love it! If you’re using a curry marinade, I wouldn’t pair it with tamarind — too many competing flavors. If the curry flavor is strong, I would suggest serving without a sauce. However, if you’re set on a tamarind sauce, try try the original Lollipop Chicken marinade that’s posted on the site. Good luck!